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Frequently mentioned Supreme Court possibilities

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Merrick Garland has been a federal judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals since 1997. Prior to his tenure on the court, Judge Garland served as a prosecutor in the criminal division of the Justice Department.Charles Dharapak/AP/File

Elena Kagan is the solicitor general of the United States and a former dean of Harvard Law School.Zuma/Newscom/File

Pamela Karlan teaches public interest and election law at Stanford Law School. She is also the founding director of the school’s famous Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, in which students litigate real cases before the court.Courtesy Stanford Law

Harold Koh is a professor of international and national security law at Yale Law School. Professor Koh is currently on leave and serving as legal adviser to the State Department.Kevin Dietsch/UPI/Newscom/File

Janet Napolitano is secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Formerly, she was governor and attorney general of Arizona. She worked as a US attorney in the Clinton administration.Dominique Faget/AFP/Newscom/File

A former law professor at Harvard Law School, Cass Sunstein joined the Obama administration last year as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the White House Office of Management and Budget.Harvard Law/UPI/Newscom/File

Kathleen Sullivan teaches constitutional law at Stanford Law School and is a partner at California-based Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. She was the dean of Stanford Law. She is openly gay.Courtesy Stanford Law

Diane Wood has served 14 years as a federal judge on the Illinois-based Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. She is well-known for her judicial battles with two prominent conservative judges on that court, Richard Posner and Frank Easterbrook.Lloyd DeGrane/University of Chicago/File